Table of Contents

  • BEANS

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    term applied to plants (and their seeds) of different genera of the vast family Leguminosae. In this article, discussion is confined to what is commonly called lūbīā in Persian.

  • BEAR

    Paul Joslin

    (Pers. ḵers, Av. arša-). Two varieties of bears are found on the Iranian plateau: the Eurasian brown bear and the Baluchistan black bear. The Eurasian brown bear is the most common of all bears. 

    This Article Has Images/Tables.

  • BEAUSOBRE, ISAAC DE

    Werner Sundermann

    (1659-1738), Huguenot pastor, scholar and pioneer of modern studies of Manicheism.

  • BEAVER

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    Castor fiber L., semiaquatic mammalian rodent, in Persian commonly sag-e ābī (lit. “aquatic dog”), no longer extant in Iran. There appear to be references to beavers in Avestan and Pahlavi literatures.

  • Bečka, Jiři

    Manfred Lorenz

    (1915-2004), a noted Czech scholar of Iran, Afghanistan, and particularly, Tajikistan.

  • BĒDIL

    cross-reference

    See BĪDEL.

  • BEDIR KHAN

    Mehmed Uzun

    (Badr Khan; d. 1867), last ruler of the principality of Cizre-Botan, by extension, name of a Kurdish clan that has played important political, social, and cultural roles since the mid-19th century.

  • BEDLĪS

    Robert Dankoff

    (Turk. Bitlis, Arm. Bałēš, Ar. Badlīs), town and province of Turkey, of Kurdish population, situated twenty km southwest of Lake Van, commanding the passes between the Armenian highlands and the Mesopotamian lowlands.

  • BEDLĪSĪ, ḤAKĪM-AL-DĪN EDRĪS

    Cornell H. Fleischer

    B. ḤOSĀM-AL-DĪN ʿALĪ, MAWLĀNĀ (d. 1520), scholar, his­torian, poet, and statesman under the Ottoman Sultan Salīm I (r. 1512-20).

  • BEDLĪSĪ, ŠARAF-AL-DĪN KHAN

    Erika Glassen

    (b. 1543, d. 1603-04?), chief of the Rūzagī tribe of Kurds, whose traditional center was the town of Bedlīs; author of the Šaraf-nāma, a history of the Kurds in Persian.

  • BEDLĪSĪ, ŻĪĀʾ-AL-DĪN ʿAMMĀR

    Edward Badeen

    Sufi shaikh (d. between 1194 and 1207-08), teacher of Najm-al-Din Kobrā.

  • BEDŽỊZATỊ ČERMEN

    Fridrik Thordarson

    (Russ.: Chermen Begizov; DAUỊTỊ FỊRT;  1899-1941), Ossetic writer and editor.

  • BEECH

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    Fagus L. Modern Iranian botanists tend to refer to this tree as rāš. Its timber is used more than any other wood for making doors, windows, inexpensive furni­ture, and tools.

  • BEET

    Hūšang Aʿlam

    Beta vulgaris L., PERS. čoḡondar. The present distinction of beet varieties into vegetable (or red) beet, sugar beet, and fodder beet was unknown to the early Islamic botanists-pharmacologists.

  • BEG

    Peter Jackson

    (Pers. also beyg) a Turkish title meaning “lord” or “chief,” later “prince,” equivalent to the Arabic-Persian amīr, fem. BEGOM.

  • BEGGING

    C. Edmund Bosworth, Hamid Algar, ʿAlī-Akbar Saʿīdī Sīrjānī

    (Pers. gadāʾī, takaddī, soʾāl).  i. In the early centuries of the Islamic period. ii. In Sufi literature and practice. iii. In later Iran.

  • BEGLERBEGĪ

    Peter Jackson

    a Turkish title meaning “beg of begs,” “commander of commanders,” In the Il-khanid period sometimes employed to designate the leading amir in the state.

  • BEGRĀM

    Martha L. Carter

    the site of ancient Kāpiśa, located 80.5 km north of Kabul overlooking the Panjšīr valley at the confluence of the Panjšīr and Ḡorband rivers.

  • BEGTOḠDÏ

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    Turkish slave com­mander of the Ghaznavid sultans Maḥmūd and Masʿūd (d. 1040).

  • BEGTUZUN

    C. Edmund Bosworth

    (Pers. Baktūzūn), a Turkish slave general of the Samanids prominent in the confused struggles for power during the closing years of the Samanid amirate (end of the 10th century).